RNC Ad Fails to Change Voter Perceptions

[ProSense]

RNC Ad Fails to Change Voter Perceptions on President's Iraq Strategy
Thursday December 15, 1:45 pm ET
Majority of Independents Believe Message is Unfair


FLEMINGTON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 15, 2005--A new survey revealed that a recent national republican committee commercial titled "Retreat and Defeat is Not an Option," failed to change voter perceptions on President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq.
The survey was conducted by HCD Research and Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion (MCIPO) during December 13-14, among a nationally representative sample of 595 adult Americans, including Republicans, Democrats and Independents.

Among the findings:

Prior to viewing the commercial:

Regardless of how you usually vote, do you think the Republican Party
or the Democratic Party is more likely to make the right decisions
about the war in Iraq?

-- 90% of Democrats believed the Democratic Party would make the
right decisions; 92% of Republicans indicated their party
would make the right decisions; 46% of Independents believed
the Republican Party would make the right decisions; and 54%
indicated the Democratic Party

a lot more...

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/051215/20051215005681.html?.v=1


10% of Democrats polled here don't believe the Democrats would make the right decision? As opposed to who the Republicans?

:wtf:

Some positives in the poll nonetheless. Independents know the deal.

[karynnj]

1. The ad looks pretty useless

One interesting comment was that the ad lost credibility with independents (and Democrats) when they got to the Kerry part at the end. I think this means one of 2 things

- either Kerry's many media things were getting his point across (so they understood what he was meaning even when taken out of context) or the issue of US soldiers going into houses itself made a sufficient impact on people.

OR

- the swiftboat ads being proven wrong in an odd way inoculate Kerry from similar charges now among those who rejected them while for those who believed them it confirmed them.

At any rate, the ads do suggest that Kerry's low key strategy to just say that people knew what he meant or pointing out that this was something he's talked about a lot and he's simply quoting the military was a good one. There's no real problem here - and he simply looked rational when dispelling it.

Oh, I assume the 10-20% of Democrats not in agreement reflect the Lieberman wing of the party. I also suspect that the ad transforms that question for Democrats from an abstract question - are the Democrats usually right on Iraq (very ambiguous when we have no power) to a more specific question because the ad makes them think the Democratic position is to get out (implied by we can't win and that we shouldn't be doing certain functions)